The invention relates to a panel-like structural component.
Such a panel-like structural component is used, for example, as a door leaf, a segment of a bellow-framed door consisting of several articulated segments, as a wall facing or cladding, as a partition or the like, although this list does not cover all possible uses. The preferred use for the panel-like structural component, however, is in the production of gates and doors, which is why this application is dealt with in particular in the following.
A panel-like structural component with the following features is known. The sectional members of the frame usually have an L-shaped or angular cross section. For a conventional rectangular frame, four such sectional members are joined at their corners by welding or by screws. The panel comprising the main wall, usually a sheet metal component, is inserted into the frame and welded or screwed to it or fastened to it using additional fasteners in the form of retainer strips or the like.
When such a panel-like structural component is used for a segment, e.g., of a bellow-framed door, the structural component must be required to have light weight so that the necessary opening times and forces will be as small as possible. It may occur during operation that the structural component is damaged by a material handling vehicle striking it. As a rule, repairing the bellow-framed door requires replacing the damaged segment with a new one, and usually, for reasons of time and cost, it is not feasible to repair the damaged segment itself. In this context, the structural components making up the segments must be economical to manufacture and repairable. The aforementioned requirements for low weight, low manufacturing costs and repairability are not fully satisfied by conventional structural components.